The Same Old Song

The soundtrack of my life is outdated. All music from the ‘60’s and ‘70’s that found me with a transistor radio under my pillow or a record player in a dorm room. Radios and records are gone. I lack nostalgia for vinyl, for keeping it or collecting it. I have bowed to Spotify. Big Brother is indeed watching. Though when Janis Joplin died my preferred game had not yet become, “Guess who died today?” The idols of my youth are playing Vegas. It’s all right.

Sometimes I do hear some new or kind of new group that breaks through my ether, like the Lumineers or the Avett Brothers, and I think, hmm, that’s interesting. It reminds me that even my grandmother liked the Beatles, and even my grandchildren like some Beatle songs. Is that what we mean by timeless? But maybe everything is timeless. Uh oh, too morose.

I loved George Harrison and John Lennon, David Crosby, Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, Leon Russell and many more. (The video is Ed Sullivan introducing The Band.) It’s myself I mourn, obviously. A door closes and maybe another will not open. But still I love the music. I remember the first time I heard certain songs. Both Sounds of Silence and Bohemian Rhapsody come to mind. I remember finding WMCA on the radio. I remember young me.

My outdated playlist is how I keep my past present. I know the lyrics to all the songs. My taste leans heavily towards folk, but we all have favorites. I bet you do too. Do tell.